Lê Quan Ninh

Biography

Lê Quan Ninh (first name Ninh) won first prize in percussion at the Versailles
Conservatory in Sylvio Gualda's
class and has played with several contemporary music ensembles (Musique Vivante,
Espace Musical, Alternance, Entre-Temps, Musique Oblique), including pieces by Varèse,
Xenakis, Zimmermann, Dillon, Dao, Messiaen, Bartok, Denisov, and Stravinsky. He has composed
and played music for the theatre (Compagnie Free Théâtre,
Compagnie du Hasard, Théâtre en Actes, Association Notoire) and for video. He is
one of the members of the Hêlios Quartet, a percussion ensemble which
works with composers, new pieces having been commissioned from Jean-Pierre Drouet,
Vinko Globokar, Giorgio Battistelli, George Lewis and Kaija Saariaho.

On the improvising front, Lê Quan Ninh first met Peter Kowald in 1987 and the two musicians
have continued to work together since, particularly in various combinations of the bassist's
Global Village. In 1988 came Lê Quan's first meeting with Carlos Zingaro, an
association that again continued in a variety of groupings: in Ned
Rothenberg's 'Speaking in Tongues' at Moers [with, in addition, Kazue Sawai
(koto), Keiji Haino (electric guitar), Jim Staley (trombone), Robert Dick (flute), Sainkho
Namtchylak (voice)] and a 1993 tour of Portugal with
Daunik Lazro. Another long-standing musical partnership has been with
Butch Morris, started in 1991, reinstated in Hamburg with Excesstet [Butch Morris (cornet) , J. A. Deane (tb &
electronics), Martin Schütz (cello & electronics), Paul Lovens (perc) and Hans
Koch (clarinets)] and continued in various Conductions (ensembles conducted by Butch
Morris) in which have played: Günter Müller (perc & el.) J. A. Deane (tb & el), Christian
Marclay (turntables), Martin Schütz (cello & el), Brandon Ross (g), Bryan
Carrott (vibes), Elizabeth Panzer (harp), Steve Colson (p); many of these have been recorded in the
New World Records Testament box set.